Dianne's friends hope to 'Spread the Word'

Three years after her death from ovarian cancer, the BBC weather presenter's loved ones launch awareness campaign

- HELENA VESTY

IT’S more than three years since BBC weather presenter Dianne Oxberry lost her life to ovarian cancer.

She died at The Christie just days after her diagnosis.

Now, as World Ovarian Cancer Day falls today, her family and friends are launching an awareness campaign to “give other families more time than we had with Dianne”.

Dianne was best known for her time as a long-serving broadcaster on BBC North West Tonight and lived in Sale with her husband and two children.

Fans and fellow presenters alike were left heartbroken when she died in January 2019, with tributes flooding in from across the region.

Now her friends and family have launched the Spread the Word campaign, targeting people across the northwest in the hope of improving awareness that will lead to people being diagnosed earlier.

There are 3.7 million women in the northwest and 940,000 of them are in the highest risk group when it comes to ovarian cancer.

If detected early, survival rates of women with ovarian cancer increase significantly, but sadly, the symptoms are often mistaken for other less serious conditions or ignored, meaning when people finally do seek medical advice, it is often too late.